I'm writing a multiple choice test (MCQ) and I'll add a page of extra questions. I'm hesitating between naming them "supplementary list/page of questions" and "supplemental list/page of questions", but I don't get the difference of meaning.
According to Wiktionary, they have distinct meaning and aren't considered synonyms:
supplemental (comparative more supplemental, superlative most supplemental)
- Acting to supplement.
- Appending.
supplementary (comparative more supplementary, superlative most supplementary)
- Additional; added to supply what is wanted.
I could potentially use alternative formulations like additional questions or extra questions, but my concern here is to understand the difference between adjectives supplemental and supplementary.
I tried to look at some well-reviewed conventions, like from unicode.org lists, but they use both terminologies without me understanding why:
Best Answer
I think you've answered your own question! The additional test questions are "added to supply what is wanted" in this case more of them. So it should be "This is a page of Supplementary questions"
Supplemental is used more in the sense of adding value or function or information. A further definition of a word, more functionality to a process.
Supplementary is adding more of the same without necessarily improving the whole.